With its thirty-three essays, This Impermanent Earth charts the course of the American literary response to the twentieth century's accumulation of environmental deprivations. Arranged chronologically from 1974 to the present, the works have been called from The Georgia Review, long considered an important venue for nonfiction among literary magazines published in the United States.
The essays range in subject matter from twentieth-century examples of what was, then called nature writing, through writing after 2000 that gradually redefines the environment in increasingly human terms, to a more inclusive expansion that considers all human surroundings as material for environmental inquiry. Likewise, the approaches range from formal essays to prose works that reflect the movement toward innovation and experimentation. The collection builds as it progresses, later essays grow from earlier ones.
"Multitudinous writers have been rattling the shakers and clanging the cymbals for a long time to bring attention to the natural world, especially its plights. With this collection The Georgia Review establishes its history as a venue for these prophetic and prescient voices, especially in opening dialogues to those who have been too long excluded. This is fine reading-so many ideas, so much tru
